Popular children’s author Ann Martin updates a series from the 1950s for a new generation of children who could use some shaping-up.
Missy Piggle-Wiggle and the Whatever Cure by Ann Martin, with Annie Parnell. 
Illustrations by Ben Hatke. Feiwell & Friends, 2016, 241 pages
Reading Level: Middle Grades, 8-10
Recommended for: ages 8-12
Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle, who lives in the upside-down house in Little Spring Valley, has decided to take matters into her own hands and go searching for her husband, a former pirate who was kidnapped. That means someone else must upside-down house-sit, and who better qualified than Ms. Piggle-Wiggle’s niece and protégée, Missy? Missy is glad to come and look after Penelope the loquacious parrot, Lester the genteel pig, Wag the dog and Lightfoot the cat. But her help is also needed by the hapless parents of Little Spring Valley, who can’t figure out how to break their children’s bad habits. These range from the merely irritating, like gum-smacking, to the seriously character-deficient, like greediness. Missy is confronted with a range of challenges, including I-Never-Said-That, Know-It-All, Just-One-More-Minute, and more. The cure usually involves magic. Frankfort Freeforall, for instance, overcomes his Whateveritis by floating above it all in an indestructible bubble until he’s ready to come down and engage with the human race. (Remember Maurice Sendak’s Pierre, Who Didn’t Care, and a cure that was much more, um, permanent?)
Betty McDonald’s original Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle tales were published in the 1940s and 50s and developed out of bedtime stories she told her children—one of whom, Annie Parnells, is collaborating on the new series. I never read the originals, but if the tone of Missy Piggle-Wiggle is a faithful echo, they were probably good fun and not heavy-handed moralism. Which is fine, as long as Christian kids (and their parents) understand that bad behavior is not the result of “bad habits,” but something much deeper that requires a more drastic cure. Pictures by Ben Hatke of Zita the Spacegirl fame add to the charm.
Cautions: None*
*Please note that others in the series may include cautions that aren’t present in this volume.
Overall Rating: 3.75 (out of 5)
- Worldview/moral value: 3.75
- Artistic value: 3.75
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Janie, I did read some of the originals, and you’re right–they’re great fun. I like the first one best because the “cures” are usually something the parents do v. the magical cures that crop up in the later books. All are fun, but It seemed like the parents being, well, parents added something to the humor for both children AND parents. (For instance, one child doesn’t like taking a baths. Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle recommends that the parents let the child abstain from baths, and when there’s a fine layer of dirt all over the child, the parents sprinkle radish seeds all over. Sure enough, the child starts sprouting…. so funny). Missy Piggle-Wiggle sounds like a fun addition, and Hatke’s illustrations are a big plus!
Hi, I have to agree with Betsy’s comment about the originals, which my girls (currently 7 and 10) have loved for years. I find them used sometimes, but my library doesn’t carry them. So I was all for Missy Piggle-Wiggle, since she was available at the library! We checked out Missy Piggle-Wiggle and the Sticky-Fingers Cure (third in the series), only to find a family with “two moms” in chapter 3! So this is just to caution parents who might not want to introduce their young children to homosexuality just yet. And a request for counsel – how should we discuss this reality with our kids? Thanks for your reviews and godly perspective.
Thank you, Kristina–we intend to address this issue soon. In the meantime, please be aware that if we like the first book of a series, that’s not a blanket recommendation of further books in the series. We’re already seeing more books with same-sex parents–usually in supporting roles but not always. At this point, our policy is to review SOME of these if they have other redeeming features and if the characters in question are minor (for example, The Dollar Kids). But we will always try to flag such issues in the Cautions and suggest an older reading level than the publisher might.